Path adds search, creates nostalgic window to your past

We’ve been trained to think of search as a strictly business traction where queries yield unfeeling results. With its latest update, Path, the private social network, wants us to see search as something far more personal.

Path today added search to its iOS and Android applications, but it’s not the kind of search experience you’ll find anywhere else. The mobile social network for exchanging intimate moments with real friends, which counts 5 million people as members, has created a nostalgic and deeply emotional way to revisit old moments.

With the release, people using Path on iPhone, iPad, and Android will now find a search bar atop their home screen. The bar promises a trip down memory lane with access to moments created in Path or imported from other social networks. As you type, Path’s search bar suggests different personalized options, including specific stories, and offers up a selection of filtering choices for revisiting the funniest of times (by emoticon) or finding highlights from last Christmas.

The experience follows the tenets of search in that you should have no problem finding the exact moment you’re in search of, but it deviates from the norm by providing you with a myriad of avenues you can take to recall adventures, near or far, you may have long forgotten. The avid collector or Instagram worrywart will also love that their imported moments — Path can import your Instagram, Facebook, and Foursquare history — are stored away for safekeeping and available to relive at anytime.

As is the case with most Path releases, the real beauty of search is in the little details, details you have to experience first-hand to understand. Path 2.9 with search is rolling out to users today. The updated app is be available in English only to start.